Last weekend saw the Anglo Caledonian rally, the final round of the 2024 British Historic Rally Championship.
The rally was held over two days in the Kielder Forest complex in Northumberland and the forests of southern Scotland. These forests are notoriously fast and unforgiving on the slightest mistake.
Phil went to the event leading the class in the Championship and in the hunt for Category 2 honours. He needed to finish the demanding event to collect as many Championship points as possible.
The team were all set for the start of the rally from Carlisle early on Saturday when storm Bert hit. The storm deposited large accumulations of snow in the remote forests and the start was delayed by three hours.
Eventually the competing crews were sent out to tackle six stages, many of which would now be run in the dark. The combination of the dark, the deep snow, patchy dense fog and black ice made the Saturday stages treacherous. 25 cars crashed out in the slippery conditions on Saturday. Phil kept the car on the track throughout the day and safely reached the finish back at Carlisle late on Saturday night in first place in the Championship class on the rally.
The finish meant that the Harris & Co backed Ford Escort had got enough Championship points to secure a Championship class win and had moved into second place in Category 2 in the Championship. Category 2 is for all cars of the Escort’s age, irrespective of engine capacity.
The weather improved overnight, and the Sunday restart saw warmer and brighter conditions as storm Bert moved out to sea. The Sunday stages were snow and ice free. Another clean run saw Phil finishing the Sunday stages in Lockerbie with another first place in the Championship class on the rally and consolidated his second place in Category 2 in the Championship.
But that’s not the end of the story as Phil explained “Because of other results in the Championship, we may end up winning Category 2. We’ll know when the final results come out.”
“It’s been a brilliant season for us and the result in this rally has really cemented what we’ve achieved this year.”